"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Sunday, July 17, 2016

THE NATION OF THE ORDINARY

(posted by Glaucon Jr)

The mouthpiece for the status quo of acquiesce to corruption
in the Church on Guam has repeatedly promoted in its blog pages the insult of JungleWatch’s
“manamko army.” It was an insult intended for Tim and those who in the name of
human decency couldn’t take the reckless disregard of the people of God any
more. I was infuriated when I heard it because our elders are being reviled and mocked by
people who at the same time hypocritically claim to stand for Chamorro values. Yet
MORE poisonous fruit from the Kiko tree.

But quickly my anger (by the grace of the Good Lord) changed
to a deep peace when I saw what all the insults and abuse really mean. It means that
there is very great cause for hope, right here, right now. It means that without
intending it, these spiritual colonizers dressed as Catholics are actually the
ones who helped the JungleWatch blog give birth to the JungleWatch Nation—a people
of the Truth dedicated to the fullness and the purity of the Faith of the
Apostles.

Some may object to the word nation, opting instead for a family or a people or a club. Call it
whatever you’d like, but it’s not some grass-roots movement. It’s grown far
beyond that, and what makes it precisely a nation is how we became what
we are.

There are two ways a nation comes to be. First is born of
blood. One is born into such a group, as one is born a Chamorro or Sicilian or
Irish or Sioux.

The second way is by common experience of an event that
permanently makes the group what it is. When the Patriarch Jacob and his family
of 70 or so went down to Egypt, they went to make a life; 400 years later, that
life was one of slavery. We all know the story: God sent Moses to lead them
out, and they were brought out into the desert, and with them came others—some Egyptians,
some Midianites, and some from other tribes and races.

But those who were brought out of Egypt weren’t the same as
those who emerged from the desert 40 years later. That original generation
grumbled against the Lord and complained that the manna he gave them wasn’t
good enough. It didn’t meet their expectations. So in that 40 years of
purification, they died and were replaced by those born in the wilderness,
raised in the wilderness, dependent on God and His lawgiver-prophet at every
turn. And when they came out of the desert, they were no longer a bunch of
random tribes.

They were Israelites. They were the people of God.

It was by their shared experience of the Exodus Event that made them Israelites,
and that’s why Jews even today celebrate Passover as they do: based on memory and
not on blood, it remembers who they are based on the Exodus Event that made
them who they are.

Christians are Christians in the same way. We share that
common experience of the real, actual event of the Incarnation: the conception,
birth, life, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ our God. That is what
makes us Christians. Life in Christ is
the full incorporation into Christ in this world and in Eternity.

Now, on a far less dramatic level (but no less true), we
have become a JungleWatch nation. It began as the initial refusal to acquiesce,
and it gained momentum. The NCW folks speak of Tim as some leader with “followers,”
as if he were some guru or founder of a cult (actually, that would be Kiko). No, Tim speaks for himself, and always has. Everyone
here at JW comes as an independent, free person of his own choosing to speak out
against so many many things that are so clearly contrary to the Faith and the
salvation of souls.

The NCW propaganda machine throws regular tantrums insisting
that JungleWatch is some small party of fringe extremists and that the rest of
the island is solidly for Apuron and his whole regime. They may even believe
that. But if our evidence shows us anything, it’s that the faithful are waking
up, more and more every day. And now that things are in motion, the time came
for a bit of rest from serving at the vanguard.

Tim’s recent stepping back has been viewed by those who hate
him as some act of abandonment or cowardice. As usual, this is because his
attackers can’t imagine that someone would do anything without an aim for profit.
For that matter, it’s incomprehensible to them that ORDINARY PEOPLE would step
up --unlike zombies like them, who can only follow blindly and never think
without being bullied. That’s the only world they know. That’s not obedience, it’s a slavery that
betrays the freedom of the human person in the love of Jesus Christ.

As for Tim, he should be congratulated. Whether anyone recognizes it, that move took real humility. It takes
humility to say, “I am one man. I just an ordinary man. I cannot do this alone.”
It’s even harder to begin a work, and just as it gets more and more vibrant, to
hand off the reins; human ambition doesn’t do this. Say what you like, but for me, that's an indicator that the Holy Spirit is afoot.

It doesn’t take hours of meditation to see that this is far larger than Tim Rohr or any
other woman or man. And so the Nation that seemed somehow inchoate before has
come together with a ferocity of Faith and Charity (not of the greeting card, effeminate
variety, but strong and manly and great-souled).

Yes, mockers: we are JungleWatch. And We are a Nation of the
Ordinary who refuse to let simplicity of life and faith be code for slavery and
self-loathing. Ours is the Faith of the Apostles, handed down by Tradition. And more: it is the preservation of the Eucharist and its celebration, from which all else in the Church flows.

We have no power. We are ordinary, common. And truly our
army is manamko. But our army is also the weak, the fragile, the simple, and
the plain. We are ordinary.

We are parents and children, students and teachers, the clean
and the addicts, sick and well, the quiet and the gentle, the uncle who is far-too-loud
at parties after too much beer, and the wife who gives him that look that he’s
going to get it when he gets home. We are ordinary.

We are blue collar intellectuals and failed artists. We are
lawyers who wanted to change the world and didn’t. We are social workers who
made mistakes. We are hip-hop wannabes and slam-poets and musicians who will
never do more than play at family parties and try to look cool. We are ordinary.

We are survivors of rape and incest who have to
suffer in silence because no one believes or wants to believe us. We are those
who forgive and those who struggle to forgive. We are those who seek
forgiveness. We are human beings in all our frailty. We are just ordinary people.

We are not robots. We are not heretics. We are not
schismatics. We are not disobedient children.

We are the Nation of the Ordinary. We are the little ones the
Lord commanded his Apostles not to harm or scandalize.

And now JungleWatch is a nation of people coming out of the
wilderness of Apuron and his lust for power and control, and we will have no more of
it. Eyes are opening to the bright light of day and seeing only then how dark the darkness really has been. We have had quite enough of all this rejection of 2000 years of the Faith.
We are DONE with a catechesis founded on the complete slavery of man to sin, even after Baptism.

Case in point: so the NCW allows the Rosary only after they have come to a certain point of
conversion? Since the Rosary is one of the most powerful tools for conversion
of oneself and others, to ban it from those who need it is like only giving
good food to the already well-fed. Sorry Mary, no-go on Fatima request. Kiko
says we’re not allowed? See how well that goes over at the Judgment.

No, we—now and always—reclaim what is ours as Roman
Catholics. The Church doesn’t belong to any bishop, nor even to the people. We
make up the Church, but the Church BELONGS to Christ, and we as His members know
when a disease is so corrupting us that we feel our own selves being poisoned. And no poison could ever come from Christ.

We are JungleWatch. The Nation of the Ordinary. And we are
the ones to proclaim the Gospel to all nations by our lives in all their
simplicity, humility, and love for the Truth. Even if it does ruffle the
feathers of those who use Chamorro culture as a smokescreen for their plotting, clergy or layman.

16 comments:

Glaucon Jr, are you the young man on the foto? I am also anly 80 years old.Thank you very much for your wonderful letter. It may help many to come back to their catholic roots, and it is by her self a powerful Catechesis.

Yes Junior, it is our love for Christ and His One, True, Holy and Apostolic Church that brings us together!

As a kamaiana from Kaneohe Hawaii,I have fond memories of Fr. Mark, God Bless his soul, our pastor at St. Ann's Church where I was an altar boy. I first became an altar boy when we lived in Kaimuki. I was attending public school at Liliokalani Elementary School when Brother Tarciscis asked my mother after Sunday Mass at St. Patricks if I was interested in becoming an altar boy. I was given a reel to reel recorder to learn the Latin responses for Mass. Those were the good old days.

Today St. Ann's parish has a "new" protestant style church with no statues of Saints and it looks like a large meeting hall. Auwe! I've lived through all the post Vatican II changes in the Catholic Church, the youth Mass with the guitars, the removal of the sanctuary rails, the Altar turned toward the people, communion received in the hands, and the subtle changes in the liturgy, the changes in our responses, the holding of hands during the Our Father and then raising them as the priest does, etc. all abuses of the U.S. Bishops after Vatican II. But then, here in Guam, something began to change! Twenty years ago my wife & I attended a "Come & Listen" session at St. Antony's Parish. Something was amiss. I could not put my finger on it until a year later. (Another story)

Here we are today with an Apostolic Administrator, a clergy in crisis and a heretical cult that has infiltrated our Church by way of the Chancery. It was my mother, Barbara, who taught me the faith and how to live it and defend it. She was called to defend the "unborn" through the Right to Life centers in Honolulu and throughout the islands. Countless hours of counseling the women trapped in the cycle of death..abortion.

Now I embrace the "cross" and defend my Savior's Church from the enemy within through JungleWatch Nation. St. Michael the Archangel defend us!

I tip my hat off to Claucon Junior, 80-year old Daniel, and my good friend Bruce Williams - so far. I, too, am 80. Perhaps we could organise an "80-Plus Club" to pull in more seniors into our "nation". While we may not be the smartest (by any standard), we are perhaps more sensitive to the division and disunity of that Church which is "One Faith, One Hope, One Baptism".

Some may call us "fanatic old fogeys", just wanting our Church to be a permanently stagnant Church of our olden days, and not wanting to be more forward thinking and live in the present and future world. I had lived my Faith as a child pre-WWII days, gone through the post-war Church when the only Mass was the Tridentine Mass, and had seen the reforms of Vatican II - and have learned to adapt myself to "the times". So why is it that I cannot now accept the changes taking place in our modern world? Because the world (and perhaps church practices and mores) are veering away farther and farther away from Christ.

Why is it that I had learned to accept (tolerate) the proliferation of non-Catholic religions (major and small) since my childhood to now, but I cannot now accept this new religion called the Neocatechumenal Way? I guess because other religions had come into our island to freely practice their own form of faith and worship, and have pretty much left us to ourselves (save for a few converts to their religion here and there). But with the NCW they have invaded and come into our very Church, disguised as Catholics themselves, taken over our physical churches (instead of building their own), and are bent on adulterating our faith and practices. That's my only beef with the NCW - and I feel so bad for some of my Kin (not just blood kin but brothers and sisters in Christ) who have been swayed that-away.

So, on behalf of the younger generations to come after me, I shall continue the fight against this evil - until I am 90 or 100! May God bless us all. (jrsa: 7/17/16)

It is the desecration of that which is Holy in our Catholic worship along with the heretical teaching that is coming out of the NCW that is troubling for me. Our very posture of kneeling at certain parts of mass, which the NCW does not observe are visible signs of these lack of reverence. We know from looking at the example of worship in Heaven that even the residents of heaven kneel or prostrate themselves after the Holy, Holy, (See Rev 4).It is the Heavenly Liturgy that we should pattern our worship from, not after what Kiko or the NCW has conceived. The Church reaffirms this in its teaching (CCC 1139) "It is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments."What is more troubling is how these bishops who are tasked with protecting the Sacred Liturgy in the Catholic Worship are allowing irreverent practice into our Worship of God entering through the backdoor.

I am a 64 year old female who remembers the rails around the altar covered with white cloth where you put your hands under the cloth as to not touch the "Body of Christ".

When the Catholic Chapel closed on Base, I went to the closest Catholic Church and was really surprised to see the priest sitting in the middle of the church with the choir behind him. The altar was to the side. I decided then that I was going to church to pray and, as long as I can go to communion, I was happy. Our church burned down and the new priest that was there decided to build the church the traditional way, with the altar in the middle of the church, the priest to the side, and the choir at the back of the church. It was like going to church back on Guam.

So, if we are to be "fanatic old fogeys" - females included - so be it! Tradition is a Beautiful Thing!

Saint Polycarp was a vigorous and stalwart defender of the One True Church until he was 86, when he was martyred. The brave manamko who have stepped out of the comfort and protection of the periphery to lead this battle against the NCW inspire me greatly. Thank you for your courage.

At the age of 52 I have not yet earned the honorable title of manamko'. I am still using training wheels as a "junior Senior." But I am proud to march along with so many "seasoned citizens" who love the church and want to preserve our traditions.

Our Faith teaches us that we enter Heaven on Earth at each Holy Mass Celebrated, and that our worship should be our very best, we should never give to God anything less, and is perhaps the reason we object to any actions that seem to compromise our worship service to mere actions of rituals and procedures most especially when they outright indicate signs of irreverence. When this happens, the whole church suffers as we are all members of the one body of Christ who commune together in the one body and blood of Christ. Bishops, Priest and people alike are present at these Holy Worship we call Mass. Perhaps this passage from Malachi can be a reminder for all of us "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the LORD's table is polluted, and the food for it* may be despised. 'What a weariness this is,' you say, and you sniff at me, * says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations." Mal 1:11,12 RSVCE

The yearnings for the Church and practices as we know it, it was the Church of our forefathers and those before them. This is what we are trying to preserve for the generations after us. The NCW intrusion and heretical teachings are the ones we are trying to remove from our Churches. Build your own, we support your right to choose. One thing we know for sure is that we will NEVER ALLOW you to take over our Faith. AB Hon, take this to the bank.

There was a time, when in most countries, the "elders" were the respected members of society.People often consulted them on matters they did not grasp.The increasing fast pace of the last 70 years, has transformed the perception of the elders, as slightly out of touch, or stuck in their way. Many think that, that knowledge can be replace by google, or some other gizmo.

In this case people have become slaves of their tools, rather than the other way around. Technology is indeed a great thing, if it serves its purpose, and not the opposite.

It is a blessing, that this struggle within our Church, has given the mamamko, the opportunity to show younger generations, that their wisdom and strength are still here and useful to all.

The bodies might be more frail, but the minds and the the wisdom are still sharp. It would be wise to listen to our elders, and give them all the respect they deserve.

Younger generations would do well to look beyond the wrinkles, and discover the beauty of their minds, and their charitable perspective.

Frenchie - I totally agree with you. I love listening to the Manåmko' of Guam! I feel sorry for some of the younger generation who do not take advantage of the knowledge and wisdom of our older generation. They may not be computer literate but they are "street smart" in every way! Listen to What They Are Saying! I Am Thanking My God for Each and Every One of Them!